Early friend and exponent of German Expressionist artists, taught art history at the Bauhaus. He was born in Karlsbad, Bohemia, which is present-day Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. Adler was born to Therese (née Hirsch) and Mortiz Adler, both of Jewish descent. Adler’s father was a theater critic and socialist. Adler lived in Munich from 1917 onward, where he wrote his dissertation at that university the same year.  His topic was the early development of the woodcut. In Munich he became familiar with the Blauen Reiter artists group and for whom he worked.

Archaeologist and historian of early British medieval iconography. Allen was the son of a landed Welshman, George Baugh Allen (1821-1898), a barrister (known as a "pleader") of the legal association ("Inner Temple") in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and his mother, Dorothea Hannah Eaton (Allen) (d. 1868). Allen graduated from King's College School, London, in 1860 and Rugby School in 1863 before attending King's College, London between 1864 and 1866.

Scottish author and art theorist and connoisseur.  Anstruther-Thomson was born into an aristocratic family; her father was John Anstruther-Thomson of Charleton and Carntyne (1818-1904), and mother Caroline Maria Agnes Robina Hamilton-Gray (Anstruher-Thomson) (1833-?). Independently wealthy, she pursued a career first as an artist studying at the Slade School of Art and that in Paris under Carolus Duran until 1889.

Marxist/social-history art historian. Antal was born to a wealthy Jewish family. His father, Alajos Antal, was a medical doctor and his mother was Sofia Gerstl. The younger Antal completed a law degree in Budapest and then continued there as well as Freiburg and Paris to study art history. In studied in Berlin under Heinrich Wölfflin and then in Vienna under Max Dvořák. He received his doctorate in art history in 1914 writing his thesis under Dvořák on neoclassical and Romantic French painting.

Archaeologist and architectural historian of ancient Rome. Ashby attended Winchester where he already secured the nickname "Titus". At 16, his family abandoned a brewing concern to move to Rome because his father wished to explore the Campagna. Through his father, Ashby met the archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani (1847-1929). He won a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford University, studying under Sir John L. Myres (1869-1954) and Francis J. Haverfield (1860-1919).

Scholar of Chinese art; Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum (1945-1955). Ashton was the son of A. J. Ashton, KC, a court recorder in Manchester, England. He graduated from Winchester and Balliol Colleges, Oxford. He served as a lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery in World War I between 1916-1919. Ashton joined the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1922 in the department of Architecture and Sculpture as an assistant Keeper (curator). In 1925 he transferred to the Department of Textiles and again in 1931 to the Department of Ceramics.

Artist and art historian. Auerbach grew up in an educated Jewish family in Frankfurt. Her mother was the painter, Emma Kehrmann (1867-1958). She studied art history between 1917-24 at the universities in Frankfurt, Bonn and Munich, under Rudolf Kautzsch and Heinrich Wölfflin. Her 1925 Frankfurt dissertation, under Kautzsch, focused on 16th-century German portraiture in Franken, Schwaben and Bavaria. She taught at Frankfurter Volksbildungsheim (1925-33).

Maverick architectural theorist and historian; modernism and pop-culture revisionist. Banham's parents were Percy Banham, a gas engineer, and Violet Reyner (Banham). The younger Banham was educated at King Edward VI School, Norwich, UK. Too young to join the military during World War II, he worked as an engine fitter at the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Banham entered the Courtauld Institute of London University in 1945 to study art history. He married Mary Mullett the following year.

Director of the National Gallery of Scotland, 1952-1970. Baxandall's father was the scientific historian David Baxandall (1874-1938). The younger David Baxandall joined the National Museum of Wales in 1929 as an assistant keeper (curator). The National Museum was a modest institution where Baxandall had difficulties convincing the Trustees to accept even a watercolor by the Welsh artist David Jones. In Cardiff he met and married Isobel Thomas, daughter of a Welsh rectory, in 1931. He advanced to Keeper in 1939.

Byzantinist and curator in the Department of Architecture and Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum 1948-1979. At age two Beckwith's mother died and his father, John Frederick Beckwith, abandoned him. His father lived anonymously in London's East end only discovered by Beckwith in his father's final years. Beckwith was raised by his paternal grandmother in Whitby, North Yorkshire, until she died in Beckwith's teens. Since Beckwith was Roman Catholic, he qualified for and was awarded a scholarship at Ampleforth College, a private Catholic boarding school also in Yorkshire.

First Keeper of the Fine Art Department, Ashmolean Museum, 1909-1931. Bell's father was Robert Courtenay Bell (1816-1896), a banker, and mother Clara Poynter (Bell) ( 1834-1927), whose brother was Edward John Poynter, a director of the National Gallery. He was distantly related on his mother's side to Edward Burne-Jones and the writer Rudyard Kipling. Poynter, Bell's uncle, married Agnes Macdonald, a sister of Burne-Jones's wife; she was in turn aunt of Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). Bell was educated privately.

Art critic and Bloomsbury theorist. Bell was son of William Heward Bell (1849-1927), a civil engineer, and Hannah Taylor Cory (1850-1942). He entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1899 studying history. There he was greatly influenced by G. E. Moore's philosophy. He was awared a Earl of Derby studentship in 1902 to study in Paris which he instead spend looking at art. Upon his return, he joined the "Thursday evenings" at the Gordon Square home of Thoby Stephen (1880-1906), whom he had met at Cambridge.

First curator of the John G. Johnson Collection, and assistant director, Pennsylvania Museum of Art (later Philadelphia Museum of Art). Bell's father was Robert Courtenay Bell (1816-1896), a banker, and mother Clara Poynter (Bell) ( 1834-1927). He was distantly related on his mother's side to Edward Burne-Jones and the writer Rudyard Kipling. Poynter, Bell's uncle, married Agnes Macdonald, a sister of Burne-Jones's wife; she was in turn aunt of Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

Marxist literary critic and art historian. Berger was born to S. J. D. Berger and Miriam Branson (Berger). He attended Central School of Art and Chelsea School of Art and served in the British army, Oxford and Buckinghamshire Infantry, during and immediately after World War II (1944-1946). Berger initially worked as an artist and teacher, exhibiting his work at galleries in London. He wrote art criticism for the The New Statesman beginning in 1951 under its editor, Kingsley Martin (1897-1969).

Early Warburg Institute developer and Director. Bing's parents were Moritz Bing and Emma Jonas (Bing). After attending the Lyceum in Hamburg, 1909-1913 and receiving an abitur from the Heinrich-Hertz Realgymnasium in 1916, she attended the universities of Munich and then Hamburg concentrating in philosophy. Her dissertation, written under Ernst Cassirer in 1921, focused on Lessing and Leibniz.

Historian of French and Italian art; Warburg Institute professor; director of the Courtauld Institute; Soviet spy. Blunt was born to minor privilege, his father, Arthur Stanley Vaughan Blunt (1870-1929), the chaplain to the British Embassy in Paris. His mother was Hilda Master Blunt (1880-1969). From early on, he gained an appreciation for French art and architecture. Like his brothers would, Blunt received a scholarship to Marlborough College. His first position, upon graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1930, was as art critic for the (London) Spectator.

Architectural historian; curator of Sir John Sloan's Museum; co-founder of the Wren Society. Bolton was the son of Thomas Bolton (1819-1895), a lawyer, and Emily Wildman (1831-1906). He attended Haileybury College before entering University College, London, in 1882. In 1884 he apprenticed to the architect Sir Robert W. Edis (1839-1927), continuing to study architecture at the Architectural Association between 1885 and 1888. He formed his own private practice in 1890 designing minor works and some county home estates and gardens.

Second director of the National Gallery, London, and artist. Boxall was the son of Thomas Boxall, a civil servant in the tax office. After attending Abingdon grammar school he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1819. He traveled to Italy several times, beginning in 1827-8, 1833-6, and 1845 to study the masterworks of art.

Architectural historian of the Gothic in England, topographer; earlier serious scholar of medieval architecture. Britton's parents were Henry Britton, who worked as a farmer, baker, and village shopkeeper, and Anne Hillier (Britton). After his mother's death, Britton left school with only a remedial education to assist his father's business. He moved from Wiltshire to London in 1787 working at the Jerusalem tavern, Clerkenwell, but studying in his off hours. In 1789 he met Edward Wedlake Brayley (1773-1854) at a bookshop who hired him to assist in book publication.

Curator of the Cook Collection, Doughty House and Flemish art scholar. Brockwell was the son of the Reverend Cannon J. C. Brockwell of Sheffield Cathedral. He was educated at St. Paul's Cathedral Choir School and Hurstpierpoint (preparatory school). He traveled widely in Europe, after which he secured a position with Charles Holroyd, Director of the National Gallery, rewriting official catalog entries. He also wrote a book for the Board of Trustees on the NGA's Lewis bequest.

Historian of 18th and 19th century French painting. Brookner was born to Newson Bruckner, a Polish immigrant, and Maude Schiska (Bruckner), a British singer whose grandfather was originally from Warsaw, Poland.  Fearful of the German-sounding last name, her mother changed their family name to Brookner as World War II began. Although secular Jews, the Brookners took in Jewish refugees fleeing the Germans during the 1930s and World War II.  Brookner attended a private school, the James Allen's Girls' School.

Professor of Fine Arts, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU. Buchthal was born to Eugen Buchthal (1878-1954) and Thea Wolff (Buchthal) (1886-1968), wealthy shop owners. The family lived in the "Villa Buchthal" on Berlin's west end (after the war, the home of tenor Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, b. 1925). Buchthal attended the Herder-Reform-Gymnasium in Charlottenberg, graduating in 1927.

Peter Paul Rubens scholar. Burchard's father was an apothecary in Mainz, Georg Burchard. Burchard himself attended the Grossherzogliches Gymnasium in Karlsruhe, graduating in 1904. He studied at the universities of Munich, Heidelberg and Halle-Wittenberg. During this time he volunteered at the print room in Dresden and Berlin where he earned the praise of director Wilhelm Bode. Burchard served in the German army in World War I in field artillery. His 1917 dissertation was written at Halle under Adolph Goldschmidt on Rembrandt etchings.

Art historian and dealer, responsible for many sensational painting discoveries in the post-World-War II period. Carritt was educated at Rugby School 1939-44 before attending Christ Church College, Oxford. While still at school he drew the attention of Benedict Nicolson, then editor of the Burlington Magazine, as someone which extraordinary art-historical perceptiveness. Nicholson took Carritt to visit the great Italian art authority, Bernard Berenson in Florence, who also was impressed with the Carritt's gifts.

Tufts University professor, medievalist scholar, and feminist theorist. Caviness, born Madeline Harrison, was born in London to Eric Vernon Harrison and Gwendoline Rigden (Harrison). Learning to read at a young age, Harrison spoke French at age five and studied Latin at age seven (Howard). She received her B.A. in 1959 from Newnham College, the University of Cambridge, where she studied Archaeology and Anthropology and English. Through Caviness’ background in Anthropology, she set her sight on a civil service career in Africa upon graduation.